McCain volunteer confesses to fabricating mugging story; real victims of violent crime lose

[illusionofjoy]

Yesterday evening, I posted a link to an article about a McCain campaign volunteer who had allegedly been attacked by an individual who became enraged upon discovering her political affiliations. As of this afternoon, the story had been debunked as a complete fabrication. The Post-Gazette reports:

Pittsburgh police say a McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack.

Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the police department's investigations division, said Ashley Todd is being charged with making a false report to police.

Chief Bryant said Ms. Todd admitted today that the story was false.

Ms. Todd, who is white, told police she was attacked by a 6-foot-4 black man in Bloomfield Wednesday night.

Chief Bryant said Todd can't explain why she invented the story or explain how the backward "B" was scratched onto her face.

When I found out that Todd had lied about the attack, any sympathy I had for her quickly dissipated. Violent crimes should be taken very seriously - and violent crimes fueled by hatred for one's gender, race, sexual orientations, political ideologies or any number of other superficial reasons for hatred should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Ashley Todd, for reasons not even known to herself, has dealt a blow to real victims of violent crime everywhere by taking on the role of the boy who cried wolf when no threat to the sheep existed at the time. It is people like this who allow juries that luxury of "plausible deniability" which finds victims not seeing their attackers brought to justice.

Even worse, however, is how the media has dealt with the exposure of the lie. Quoth The Nation:

Todd, Drudge and the McCain supporters who pushed this racially-incendiary story should be deeply ashamed of themselves. It is the lowest blow in an already disgustingly dirty campaign. As Josh Marshall writes, "To say this is a dark moment does not do justice to the deep awfulness of this stunt. It's the metaphoric pedal-to-the-medal for the sleazy sub-rosa campaign of racial fear-mongering that so far has failed to derail Obama's candidacy."

What is obviously wrong with this picture is that McCain is no more personally responsible for Todd's actions anymore than Obama would have been personally responsible for the actions of the attacker had the attack been real. To somehow blame the McCain campaign for this is asinine. Speaking only for myself, I was appalled by the violence of the situation over something as ridiculous as politics. The story was so believable because similar things have actually happened.

In New York city, a McCain supporter was assaulted for holding a campaign sign. On the opposite side of the politically-motivated violence spectrum, a man was shot for wearing an Obama T-shirt. Certain Obama supporters have been photographed wearing T-shirts bearing the phrase, "Sarah Palin is a cunt" while certain McCain supporters have set up yard displays lynching Obama in effigy.

This is the most toxic campaign season I have ever had the displeasure of witnessing. In speaking with friends and co-workers, I'm told that none of them have seen anything like this in an election season in the past twenty to thirty years. Something has gone seriously wrong here...

Comments

[agentorrange.livejournal.com]

Ah but add to it another layer of disgust.
Apparently Todd had just recently joined the McCain campaign (I heard this from my fiance) and before that had been working for Ron Paul.

And perhaps still is, if only in her mind.

[illusion-of-joy.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be surprised if she was. There are still a handful of houses in the area with Ron Paul signs in the yard. Part of me wants to slap a McCain sticker on them with a note saying, "I took down my Hillary sign, I faced reality, so should you."

Whatever the reasons, there are some signals misfiring in Ashley Todd's head.